Hard water woes..

chilly · 10-01-04, 02:33

Our water comes form a well, and while the water is cold and clear and delicious, it is also verrrrrrry hard, and leaves water spots on everything. The house had a water softener installed when we moved in but it has never been put into operation. If you all had the option would you fire it up?

I hate the slimy feeling of trying to rinse off after I take a shower, but I hate water spots on my TT even worse, and I always seem to get a little drip down the door from the rear-views or rear hatch after a wash and dry.

Will soft water solve this problem?

Michael

scottlee · 10-01-04, 02:45

fire it up
and as far as the slimy feeling, thats just clean skin because the soap residue was easily washed off your skin, justlike suds will curtle in bath water , or break down and leave a heavy film in the tub it also leaves that same residue on your skin, fire it up make yourself get use to it and take note how much less detergent you will need for laundry and everything else, hence, watch carefully how much soap u use on the microfibes in the wash, typically you will use 25-50% less laundry detergent and soap and shampoo. sorry for the long post bbut i have had soft water all my life and am now live in a rental and am going nuts without it

chilly · 10-01-04, 10:12

I am all for less soap, shampoo, laundry detergent etc, so I will clean it out and get her going.

Thanks again

Michael

scottlee · 10-01-04, 11:32

anytime chilly, as a matter of fact , i kept my water softener from my last house so i have one to install in my new place, cant wait to find a new home and get it installed

good luck any ?'s feel free to message me

TW85 HHI · 10-01-04, 11:41

Absolutely start using the water softener. Our new house has a softener and all exterior water lines have soft water. Feels odd at first (shower) but you get used to it, and it is so nice not having to deal with water spots on the cars.

Accumulator · 10-02-04, 09:59

Chilly- Just make sure your softener *does* feed the spigot you use when you wash the car! And FWIW, I use Potassium Chloride instead of Sodium Chloride in mine. Less sodium is probably good for your car as well as for you.

You'll like soft water, just make sure your softener is working correctly (worth paying for a service call IMO). We have one for the house and a separate one for the garage, couldn't get by without them.

Intercooled · 10-02-04, 06:33

Its funny seeing this thread, I've been in my house for a year now and we have extremly hard water. We do have a softener but it wasn't plumbed to the outside water lines. I just recently (last week) tied in the driveway faucet to the softener. I couldn't take the hard water spots on my car any more. Now I havn't used it yet to wash my black car. I hope the softened water does the trick!!

Setec Astronomy · 10-02-04, 06:40

Quote:

Originally posted by Intercooled
I just recently (last week) tied in the driveway faucet to the softener...I haven't used it yet ...

Be sure to come back and tell us after you have compared. Like most houses that were built with water softeners but without separate sprinkler systems, the outside faucets on my house are fed by hard water so you didn't use all the soft water on the lawn (or washing the car, I guess). I'm itching to get my driveway faucet changed to a soft water line, but I've been hemming and hawing whether to go to DI or something...anyway, give us the hard/soft back-to-back review.

Intercooled · 10-03-04, 02:37

My car is a garage queen, and I'm going away the end of this week. I probably wont get to washing the black car for 2 weeks. I'll then post my findings.

I have washed my wifes silver mini van. The soap did suds up some more. With the hard water I really didn't notice spotting on the paint but did on the windows. The paint seems to be pretty much the same. I dry with Sonus Waffle weave towles. I really didn't notice any spotting or notice that with the soft water it was better, but then again the silver is a wonderful color to hide such things. But the windows did come out much cleaner with just using the waffle weave. The black car will be the real test. It seemed with the hard water that no matter how much or carefully I dried there were always some underlying spotting.

texas328ci · 10-03-04, 04:48

I also have very hard water. I'm sure anyone from Central Texas can relate. Since my softener isn't (yet) hooked up to my outside lines, I've had to deal with this as well. One simple thing I've found that really helps is to use a car wash with softening agents in it. I REALLY like the new Megs NXT wash. I've been using it for 3 weeks now, and there is a noticeable difference. My bimmer has sooo many crevices where water accumulates and then drips out (sometimes an hour or more after washing.) Since I switched to NXT wash, the spotting that used to be extremely evident has diminished quite a bit.

Just my 2 cents.

tom p. · 10-03-04, 06:18

Some of us have found the Duragloss shampoo to be very good when it comes to water spotting.

Intercooled · 10-03-04, 06:24

Just washed my white work truck this evening. Have Z2 on the surface and has been on for about 3 weeks. The soft water made the soap suds better and and also seemed like the surface was a bit slicker moving the wash sponge over it. Also when drying the surface it seemed "soft" and smooth. I dryed off my glass and mirrors and called it quits. I must say that my mirrors and glass have never looked that clean with just drying and no glass cleaner with hard water. I would say that on the glass surfaces the spotting improved my at least 80% ! And on the painted sufaces everything looks to be spot free.
One major point which I should make is that I washed and dryed at dusk with no sun. I;m sure that helped produce better results.

With now washing twice with two different cars since I've been using the softened water, I must say that it sure is different. Everything seems smoother and more trouble free when washing and drying. IMO the surface seems cleaner and slicker.
I'm LOVING the softer water!!